#LoveRomance – Because women can tell fiction from reality

This week, we’re asking readers who plan to attend SWF to leave specially designed postcards at common areas, empty seats and any other places that other attendees might serendipitously find them. If you plan to attend SWF and would like to help out by leaving postcards in places other readers might find them, send an email to kat@bookthingo.com.au.

Our second #loveromance cover remix reveal features The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde re-imagined as a paranormal romance. After all, it’s about a magical painting and an arseholic alpha hero who brutally uses and kills people, and then attempts to reform himself. When this book was published, it was considered scandalous and caused outrage among readers who considered it immoral.

Today The Picture of Dorian Gray is a classic work of literature, and no critic would dismiss it because they think it will raise men’s expectations of debauched lifestyles. Contrast this to romance fiction, which is blamed for women having unrealistic expectations in relationships, of being porn for women (nothing more than a masturbatory aid rather than an expression of art or a form of literary entertainment), or of being escapist and therefore too light for serious review or analysis.

You can check out some quotes from the book here, and you can download the book from Project Gutenberg. (Note: Definitely not a romance.) This cover was designed by the very talented Jennifer Wu. You can find out more about her work here.

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Kat Mayo is a freelance writer, podcaster, Twitter tragic, and compulsive reader. Her reviews have appeared in Books+Publishing, and she was the winner of the 2014 RWA Romance Media Award. She believes in happy endings, and kills fairies with glee.